Evelyn Glennie Receives ISM Medal
British Percussionist Honoured with the ISM's Distinguished Musician Award
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04 April 2007
The
eminent percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie DBE has received the
ISM’s Distinguished Musician Award for 2006. Dame Evelyn, a
long-standing member of the ISM, was presented with the DMA medal by the
Society’s President for 2006-07, Colin Bradbury, during the ISM
Council’s meeting in London on 17 March 2007.
Receiving the DMA, Dame Evelyn said: ‘This is indeed a great honour, which I am delighted to accept’. She spoke with feeling about her early musical education in village schools in Aberdeenshire, where enlightened local authority policies had enabled her to receive free tuition on both piano and percussion – if cost considerations had forced her parents to choose only one, it might not have been percussion. She urged the ISM to maintain its pressure on the government to ensure that top-quality music teaching was available to all schoolchildren, and vowed to continue her personal campaign to the same end.
Dr David Smith, the ISM’s East Scotland Regional Councillor, who had nominated Dame Evelyn for the DMA, said:
‘Dame Evelyn was born and brought up in rural Aberdeenshire, where
she attended Ellon Academy before studying at the RAM. She is the first
musician to have managed to sustain a full-time performing career as a
solo percussionist: this has taken her around the world, typically
performing in 100 concerts per year. She displays a dynamic flair in
performance, and has acted as an inspiration for a generation of young
percussionists. She is also in demand as a teacher, giving frequent
masterclasses wherever she travels. As a champion of new music, she has
commissioned 145 new percussion works from the world’s most eminent
composers, including concertos and solo percussion pieces, greatly
enriching the repertory. She has successfully crossed the boundaries of
‘art’ and ‘popular’ music, working with a wide and disparate array of
artists: for example, she has collaborated in projects involving music
for film, TV and radio, has explored improvised sound worlds, and
composed songs with the vocalist Björk. She has received many accolades
for her playing, including a Grammy Award in 1989 for a recording of
Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion. A woman of strongly
held views and convictions, she often challenges established orthodoxy.
She has received honorary doctorates from 15 UK universities, and was
appointed OBE in 1993 and DBE in 2007.’
The ISM established its Distinguished Musician Award in 1976, as a means by which the profession could acknowledge the outstanding contribution of a colleague to British musical life. Previous recipients have been Sir Alexander Gibson, Sir William Walton, Sir Peter Pears, Sir Adrian Boult, James Galway, Jacqueline du Pre, Janet Craxton, Sir Michael Tippett, Sir Reginald Goodall, Sir Charles Groves, Sir Simon Rattle, Norman Del Mar, Witold Lutoslawski, Julian Bream, Sir Colin Davis, George Malcolm, Christopher Hogwood, Sir David Willcocks, Dame Fanny Waterman, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir Charles Mackerras, John McCabe, Sir Malcolm Arnold and Pierre Boulez.
Photos (by Mark Thompson Photography) are available from danny@ism.org.
Ends: 03/2007
Note to Editors: Note to Editors: The ISM, founded in 1882, is the UK’s professional body for all musicians. It promotes the art of music and upholds the honour and interests of the musical profession by protecting the interests of musicians, raising professional standards, and providing legal advice and other benefits to its 5,000 members, who include performers, teachers, composers, conductors, organists, writers and others involved in professional musical work. The ISM established its Distinguished Musician Award in 1976. The Award is a silver medallion, bearing the ISM logo and engraved on the reverse with the recipient’s name.
Contact: Neil Hoyle, Chief Executive, T. 020 7629 4413
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